Newspaper Page Text
Shirley Chisholm
gives endorsement
to Jesse Jackson
Page 1
Volume 121 Number 30
Blacks elected as mayors
of Philly and Charlotte
(From ci jmbined reports)
W. Wilson 'Goode, son of a Nor
th Carolina sharecropper, was
elected Philadelphia’s first Black
mayor on Tuesday.
“I feel on top of the world,” he
said, accepting; the cheers of loyal
supporters in the Phildelphia Con
vention Center.
“We’ve learned how to live
together, work together and cam
paign together. I campaigned on
the theme of u: nity, and that theme
reached out a't what grabbed the
people of tliis city,” he said.
Goode’s el ection puts Black
mayors in charge of four of the
USA’s six larg est cities—Chicago,
Los Angeles, Philadelphia and
Detroit.
Nationwide, 23 cities already
elected Black mayors this year,
with at least a dozen more Black
candidates on 1 his month’s ballots.
In Charlotte,, N.C., Tuesday,
Democratic C ouncilman Harvey
Gantt was elected the first Black
mayor of Sout h Carolina’s largest
city. The 40-year-old architect
Shirley Chisholm backs
Jesse Jackson’s bid
Jesse Jacks on’s bid for the
Democratic Presidential
nomination has been strengthened
with the expected addition of
onetime Brooklyn
Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm
to his policy-making staff.
Jackson’s not unexpected bid
for the White House pits him
against frontrunners Mondale and
Ohio Senator John Glenn. While
he might not wi n the primaries, or
get the nod at the Democratic con
vention, if he di d win the former,
many political observers predict
that if Jackson can corral more
than 300 delegale votes when he
goes to the convention, he could
knock Mondale out of the race,
throwing his support possibly to
Glenn.
His delegate strength could also
establish him as a power broker.
Out of the box as the Black is
denied the nomination.
Comparing her situation in 1972
when she ran for her party’s
presidential nomination and went
to the convention with 152 delegate
votes, Chisholm said:
“Sexism and racism were the
reason that Black political leaders
Coretta emerging from King ’5 shadow
Fifteen years after the tragic
slaying of civil rights; leader Martin
Luther King Jr., his wife Coretta is
emerging from his shadow and
becoming recognized for her own
work on behalf of civil rights, ac
cording to a cover story in the
December issue of Right
On/CLASS magazine.
Since the day in 1968 when Dr.
King was shot down, Mrs. King
has committed herself to con
tinuing his mission. She has been
in the forefront of the movement
for a national holiday com
memorating the anniversary of her
husband’s birth.
As president and chief executive
of the Martin Luther King Center
for Non-Violent Social Change,
©lye Augusta Neuis-Htemeui
defeated Republican Ed Peacock,
a 41-year-old insurance agent.
In Gary, Ind., Democrat
Richard Hatcher, a lawyer, was re
elected to a fifth term.
In Boston, Melvin King, a 54-
year-old Democratic former state
representative, has become the fir
st Black to run in a mayoral final
election. King is opposed by Ray
Flynn, a 44-year-old Democratic
member of the city council, in the
non-partisan mayoral election
Nov. 15.
“As many large cities approach
Black majority...it’s only natural
that we see Black political power
increasing,” said Thomas
Cavanaugh of Washington’s Joint
Center for Political Studies. “It’s
the same phenomenon that we saw
with the Irish at the turn of the
century.”
With 99 percent of the precincts,
Goode had 55 percent of the votes
cast to 37 percent for Republican
John Egan and eight percent for
independent Thomas Leonard.
Goode, 45, was heavily favored
• 1
ft di
Shirley Chisholm
denied me their support. My Black
political brothers just didn’t want
to back me because I was a
woman, ‘unbought and unsold.’
“They said I didn’t consult them
but neither is Jackson doing that
today. He’s gone over the leaders’
heads to appear to the grass roots
as well as trying to build a coalition
of minorities, women and
Hispanics as well as liberal whites.
she has skillfully developed the
facility into one of America’s most
visited tourist attractions.
But the center, which includes
Dr. King’s birth home, a library,
community center, freedom hall,
social services and education, early
learning and recreation facilities, is
not without its problems.
“It has been very unpredictable
as to whether or not we were able
to maintain our staff,’’ she said in
the interview. “We don’t have
nearly the staff we need...and I
have to kill myself running back
and forth across the country trying
to raise money to keep the center
going.”
Many people see the beautiful
complex and assume that money is
Coretta emerges
from shadow
of Dr. King
Page 1
to win the Philadelphia election af
ter he defeated fiery former mayor
and police chief Frank Rizzo in a
bruising Democratic primary last
May.
Demdcrats have controlled City
Hall for the past 32 years. They
hold a 4-1 registration edge among
the city’s one million registered
voters—39o,ooo are Black.
Goode, a Baptist deacon and a
former chairman of the Pen
nsylvania Public Utility Com
mission, is a graduate of the Whar
ton School. He served for three
years as managing director, the
No. 2 spot in the city government,
under retiring Mayor William
Green.
He’s married and the father of
three.
On the surface, race was not a
major issue in the campaign. But
Sunday, Goode told parishioners
at First Baptist Church of
Paschall: “There have been names
called, there have been character
assassinations made. But through
it all your prayers have sustained
me.”
“Jesse has the ability to tran
slate his charisma to the masses
who are backing him to the hilt
and will go into the ballot box and
pull the levers over his name. He’s
proved that one does not have to
be a member of the club to run.”
When she ran, Chisholm’s cam
paign funds were low compared to
her white opponents.
It was learned that several major
white candidates have phoned her
at Mt. Holyoke College in Mass.,
where she’s teaching since
resigning from Congress two years
ago. While they solicited her sup
port , a close associate disclosed
she politely turned them down
knowing she would play a major
role in Jackson’s campaign once he
committed himself.
Her immediate role in his cam
paign, it was learned, will be to aid
him in persuading a white, liberal
woman to join his ticket as his vice
president partner if he captures the
nomination. This audacious move
could throw the entire Democratic
race into chaos as just this idea
alone could win him untold hun
dreds of thousands of female votes
in the primaries.
not needed. Mrs. King notes,
“They say, ‘they gotta have money
because, you know, them Kings
have money anyhow.’” Nothing
could be further from the truth.
“The thing is that Martin
wouldn’t let anybody make him
rich and have a lot of money. He
decided that was not in keeping
with his values,” she remembers.
Mrs. King’s values are much the
same as her late husband’s in that
she receives no salary from the
King Center. She supports herself
and family through lectures, ap
pearances and writings.
“I don’t get paid and I never
will,” she says. “As long as I can,
I will never get paid any money for
anything I do for the cause.”
Black astronauts I
said ' I
‘the ri
Page 3
November 12,1983
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On the eve of enactment of national holiday bill, honoring the late Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr., ceremonies were held in Atlanta to mark the compeleted renovation of the King
birth home, funded by a grant from the Johnson’s Wax Fund, Inc., of Racine, WI. From
left are King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, Sam C. Johnson, chairman of the Johnson’s Wax
Fund, Inc. and Jesse Hill, president of Atlanta Life Insurance Co. and publisher of the
Atlanta Inquirer.
Jesse had to run
Editorial
We predict that in a very
short time we will all won
der why we even debated
whether Jesse Jackson
should ran for president.
Not only did he make the
right decision, we believe
that he made the only
decision that he could
make.
By simply becoming a
candidate Jackson could
spur the registration of
more than three million
additional Black voters.
Those voters would
represent the margin of
victory for countless
Democrats and hundreds
of Black candidates in
local races.
Jackson “may have
more impact on the New
York City mayoral elec
tion of 1985 than the
presidential election of
1984,” one Democrat
says, referring to
Jackson’s pontential to
register many of the
roughly 900,000 eligible
Blacks in the state who are
not on the rolls.
Aside from increasing
the number of registered
voters and Black and
liberal candidates,
Jackson will force the
other candidates to con
front issues that would
normally go unaddressed.
No one but Jackson will
deal with issues such as
racism, economic parity,
the redistribution of
This year, Mrs. King led the
march in Washington com
memorating the 20 anniversary of
the historic march her husband
led. She says she wants those who
attended to “learn that there is
strength by coming together
around consensus issues and that
S.C. State
runs over
y ' '•'’Cookman
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Less than 75 percent Advertising
wealth in this country,
dual primaries, and U.S.
support for the apartheid
government in South
Africa. Jackson will make
America come to grips
with itself, not to divided
but to renew the cieasing
and healing process.
No one can estimate the
interest and excitement his
candidacy will generate
among young people who
need to become involved
in the political process,
especially young Blacks
who would see him as a
role model. And Jackson’s
perspective as a minister
should be a big plus. If he
has the impact on Mon
dale’s candidacy that
many people fear, he will
be in an awfully strong
bargaining position.
We do not accept the
argument that Jackson
will deny Mondale the
nomination and insure vic
tory for Reagan. It is in
teresting that no one has
urged Cranston or
Boilings Askew not to run
for that reason.
While it is unlikely that
Jackson will win the
Democratic nomination,
the good coming from his
candidacy will make him a
winner. Jacksoin will
make a greater con
tribution, just by being a
candidate, than most
others would if they*
became president.
our own individualistic concerns
are advanced as we work for the
common good.”
In the interview, she also
discusses the possibility of a Black
presidency and the progress being
made on a national holiday com
memorating her husband’s birth.
SCLC
denounces
firings
ATLANTA Southern
Christian Leadership Conference
President Joseph E. Lowery has
voiced support for a suit
challenging the dismissal of Civil
Rights Commissioners Dr. Mary
Berry and Blandina Cardenas
Ramirez.
The two filed suit in the U.S.
District Court in Washington, con
tending that President Reagan had
no power to fire them from their
posts on the six member com
mission.
“The commission’s value,
limited as it is, is effectively
destroyed,” said Lowery, charging
that replacement by Reagan ap
pointees will destroy the indepen
dence of the commission.
The three most recent firings of
Berry, Ramirez and Rabbi Murray
Saltzman of Baltimore, mean that
Reagan has replaced five of the six
members of the commission since
taking office, though no other
president has ever fired a Civil
Rights Commissioner.
“If the commission is to become
the personal agent of the
President’s antipathy to affir
mative action and strong civil
rights action,” Lowery continued,
“then we should hold a funeral
and bury it.”
The commission, created in 1957
as a watchdog for the gover
nment’s civil rights policies, as an
advisory body that investigates
discrimination. It has no enfor
cement powers. The panel
theoretically expired Sept. 30, but
has a 60-day wind-down after
which it will cease to exist unless
reauthorized by Congress and ap
proved by the president.
Negotiations have been under
way in the Senate toward a com
promise that would expand the
commission, allowing the current
members to remain on the job and
some of the Reagan nominees to be
sworn in. A bi-partisan effort has
also been launched in the Senate to
reconstitute the commission as an
independent arm of Congress.
The firings leave the commission
with less than a quorum of four,
which means that until at least one
more member is confirmed by the
Senate, the commission cannot
conduct business.
SCLC and civil rights groups
around the country say that the
three ousted members, appointed
by two previous presidents, were
gulity only of criticizing the ad
ministration’s civil rights record.
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